A cancerous image
The causes of Africa's negative and reductive image. Political and economic
impact. Common stereotypes. The important role of mass-media. The role
of international NGOs. Possible solutions.

by Daniele Mezzana

Is there a relationship
between the representation of sub Saharan Africa and its

Students working
in a library in Dakar, Senegal.
Source: Peggy D'Adamo, JHU/CCP, Photoshare, 2001

position within human societies, its past role, its international
clout, its possibilities of development, in other words its “lot”?
Readers of African Societies may feel the query is somewhat rhetorical as
the e-magazine was expressly created to provide a more complete and realistic
vision of the continent to replace the current and widespread negative,
shallow and misleading picture. Nevertheless, if we pose the question yet
again, it means the answer can by no means be taken for granted, especially
if we consider all the ways this material can be handled and the gamut of
solutions that can be found.

Therefore, this article
will attempt to provide some ideas for in-depth analysis, in particular
concerning the approaches used to study the representation of the African
continent (especially by the Western media – press, radio, television1)
, the resulting image of Africa, the consequences of the spread (and enduring
existence) of this image and the existing possibilities of reversing the
trend to some degree. As will be seen, these possibilities are closely
linked to the identification not only of assumptions, stereotypes and
prejudices, but also of the specific players involved in this scenario,
the procedures the latter adopt (more or less deliberately) and the barriers
and opportunities they can be faced with.

Images and political and economical marginalization

The lines of study described hereinunder possess evident
features and will therefore be presented separately, even if in many cases
they are intertwined and overlapping and, as can be seen, many authors
have worked in several research fields.
An initial line of study in this field embraces a series of contributions
mainly adopting a critical approach and they tend to put the issue of
the image of Africa on a political strategical plane. The authors taking
this stance purport, that the current representations on the African continent,
especially in the mass media, are prevalently manifestations of specific
imbalances of power at the symbolic and communication level determined
by players in the Northern hemisphere, such as governments, power groups,
and multinational corporation whose interests are often concurrent woven.
Within such scenario, traditional analyses aimed at revealing the existence
of old and new forms of colonialism and cultural, political and economical
imperialism have been proposed once again, whereby the image of Africa
in the Western media would be intentionally distorted – when not
created ad hoc – in order to conform with the shared requirements
and strategies of foreign, commercial and cultural policies and at the
same time concealing Africa’s role (especially its economic one)
(Chavis, 1998) (Ebo 1992).
Other authors have highlighted the relationship between the quality of
the information on Africa provided by the Northern hemisphere media and
governments’ intentions to periodically commit themselves
to specific issues. For instance, think back to the 1980s and the food
aid campaigns for Africa (Govea, 1992) when the real and proper presence
of hidden meanings was underlined. For example the “discourse”
on hunger in Africa and its causes, was interpreted as one of the signs
of the Cold War between East and West (see further on) (Fair, 1992).

Asgede Hagos was one of the researchers who attempted to
conduct an overall

People in line outside Amahoro
stadium in Kigali, Rwanda.
Source: JHU/CCP, Photoshare, 2001

investigation on the marginalization of Africa by
the Western media, especially the US media, at the turn of the
1970s and the beginning of the 1980s (Hagos, 2000). He underlines the
close relationship between governmental bodies and the US media and records
the US media’s on-going tendency to neglect the African continent
because it is of minor strategic importance for the United States government.
According to Hagos, the incomplete media coverage of Africa only resulted
in greater dependency, exploitation and supremacy as it portrayed or replicated
the idea of a continent and players on the sidelines of the world stage.
The author also maintains that any media coverage was solely produced
to suit precise political or ideological requirements,
on the whole to undermine communism (for example the interpretation of
phenomena, such as the antiapartheid movements in South Africa or the
famines in Ethiopia and Eritrea over the period investigated).

Another study analyzes the image of Africa provided by the
former USSR media over a longer time interval (1956 – 1993) than
investigated in the previously mentioned US study (Quist - Adade, 2001).
The former study revealed that the objectives of the existing interpretative
prejudices and stereotypes differed from those reported by Hagos, but
nonetheless tended to construct the same shallow and marginalized image
as shown by other research on the same topic (Eribo, 2001). These stereotypes
ranged from blaming the problems afflicting Africa on “imperialist
scheming” to the representation of a continent unable to develop
single-handed without outside help, in the case in point international
aid that, in the author’s opinion, barely concealed its paternalistic
attitude.

International flow of news and newsworthiness

Over the recent decades (in particular, the years at the turn of the 1970s
and beginning of the 1980s)2
(Malek, Kavoori 2001), numerous studies focused on the international flow
of news. These investigations frequently had a quantitative approach and
revealed marked disparity in the new flow. They also provided a wide empirical
basis to show, for instance, the shortage (and the poor quality) of the
African news reported by the Western media. News that in any case had
only relatively recently reached the headlines, starting from the media
coverage of some of the 1970 and 19803
disasters (famines and droughts).

There has been a drastic drop in the news on developing
countries (by up to 50% in the 1990s) (Philo 2001) and it emerged, for
instance, that only 2.2% of a news sample broadcast by the US television
networks ABC, NBC and CBS regarded Africa4 .
Furthermore, it was seen that in the time interval October 10, 1999 to
March 31, 2000 the main Italian TV news programs only dedicated 128 (0.6%)
of the 21,500 news items to Africa, and that the vast majority of the
news focused on catastrophes and violent episodes (Grandi, 2000). The
vast imbalances are even more apparent bearing in mind that the four leading
international press agencies (Reuters, Agence France-Press, United Press
International and The Associated Press) belong to only three countries
and that these four agencies release most of the news to the press rooms
worldwide (van der Heyden, undated).

Classic studies have also been conducted on the “newsworthiness”,
or – in the case in question – on what the media feel are
the vital criteria required to make events occurring in Africa, or in
another developing country, international and thus marketable to some
degree. Way back in the mid 1960s Johan Galtung and Mari Holmboe Ruge
conduced a famous pioneer study to endeavor to identify these criteria,
the combination of which increased the probability of “newsworthiness”
(Galtung, Ruge, 1965). For example, events that take place over a period
of time that fits in with the work schedule in the specific type of media
(24 hours for a newspaper), those that occur on a large enough scale (the
size of the headlines depends on how violent or devastating the events
are), those that present minor uncertainty (and are thus more easy to
interpret) and are closer, and have more significance, to the public’s
culture. In other words, events that conform to the pre-existing mental
image of Africa (discussed more in depth later on). Furthermore, according
to Galtung and Ruge, to make the headlines events must be extraordinary,
unforeseen and devastating, happen in important countries and involve
important high ranking people and personal affairs.

There is a precise geography of “newsworthiness”
as underlined by Herbert Gans’ past studies that revealed the existence
of a specific “cognitive map” of the world in the hands of
media owners and staff. For example, in that period the US media favored
news items regarding allied countries, followed by news from communist
countries or their allies (it was the period of the Cold War), and dedicated
very little attention to the rest of the world. This state of affairs
and also the rationale described by Galtung and Ruge indicated that US
activity abroad, activities influencing US politics and citizens, activities
of Communist countries, elections and other peaceful changes in the institutions,
political conflicts, disasters and reigns of terror were considered newsworthiness
events (Gans, 1979). Many of these conclusions were confirmed by later
research (Wolf, 1985), and it is rather obvious that – with the
exception of the fall of the Berlin Wall – they still hold to some
extent especially for the media coverage of African countries.

Social construction of image

Another more general type of approach aims at stressing
the ways of “social

construction” of Africa’s image adopted more
or less deliberately by different types of actors (media and others).

There is no doubt that in this scenario the media play the
leading role (as described in depth later on), nevertheless some articles
in this issue of African Societies show they are not the only,
nor the first players. Although the present article mainly focuses on
the role of the media, it must be underlined that the media merely use
and handle pre-existing cultural material for their purposes.

Material of this kind can be found in works by Ancient Greek and Roman
geographers, historians and naturalists (for example Strabo and Pliny)
(Holslin, 2001). Additional material was produced by others, including
explorers, missionaries, colonial officers, managers and staff of international
bodies and non governmental organizations, educators, entrepreneurs and
businessmen, tour operators5 , historians, and
down the line to journalists and owners of the mass media. These players
also comprise persons above suspicion who advocate colonial rule and the
theory that non European peoples “need to be guided”, for
instance the liberal philosophers John Locke and John Stuart Mill (Parek,
1995).

Basically, there is an entire system of narrative
sources on Africa (accessed not only by Westerners but also by
Africans) providing a broad spectrum of information. It is made up of
ethnographic museums, school books, novels, (e.g. Heart of Darkness by
Joseph Conrad)6 , travelogues, sermons, informative
dossiers complied for investors, films (starting way back with Tarzan),
cartoons, comics, music, photographs, posters, documentaries, theme parks,
tour brochures, and obviously mass media communications. Yet, this data
is often – as documented and described later on – incomplete,
stereotyped, misleading and racist (Mengara, 2001). It has been deeply
stratified in the cultures of the players involved – from long before
from the age of colonization and slavery – and some authors feel
that real and proper “decolonization of imagery” has
to be achieved in the framework of pluralistic globalization of humanity
(Pietrese, Parek, 1995).

As mentioned elsewhere social researchers have played a
particular role in this scenario (Davidson 1969; Mezzana, 2002 ), starting
from those working for colonial research institutes up to the present
day. In reality, the application of evolutionism together
with cultural anthropology (understood as the one social/human
science applicable to the African context according to a tacit but on-going
disguised colonial disciplinary subdivision of the world)
has produced a strong underrepresentation of the African social reality
and its real mechanisms and has attached negative labels to the whole
continent (with categories such as lack of history, animism, primitivism,
and so on). People like Cyril Obe reported the ethnocentrism of the current
debates on Africa and underlined a widespread practice in social
research, i.e. “allowing” local researchers merely
to record brute data that are then used by Western experts to be interpreted
by them as they deem fit (Obi 2001). This practice, along with other factors,
has obviously favored marginalization of African scientists and their
work.

As previously mentioned, all the material – let’s call it
“sociological” material – ends up in the media
that are, in this sense, means of consolidation, further transmission,
and, to some extent, active construction of the representations previously
created by the above mentioned agencies, albeit with specific modalities
and a capability of impact somehow greater. However, the entire history
of sociology of communication has clearly shown that the media’s
role never appears to represent a sort of absolute power over
the public. If anything, the extent of the media’s influence
on constructing social reality – where it can be attempted –
depends on the interrelationships between the activity of same media and
the numerous features of the social life of those using it,
such as social groups, networks, know how and knowledge, critical capacity,
access to multiple sources, level and type of exposure to texts transmitted
by the same media, intentionality and so on (Hawkins, Pingree, 1983; Wolf,
1992).

Hence, (and deferring a more detailed analysis to elsewhere
and other sources - some of them previously cited), it is clear that one
of the features of the media is its major role as an information
resource on realities not directly available to individuals,
and this is what the present dossier focuses on. As many studies show,
this peculiar feature of the media is particularly true in the case of
Africa. Even people who have never been to Africa know (or feel they know)
something about it thanks to access - by no means passive, but differentiated
and “negotiated” – to the above mentioned sources. And
according to authors like Beverly G. Hawk, specific cognitive
structures regarding the African continent can be identified.
It is a question of library stock, myths, symbols and structures (see
above) that have accumulated over time and play a part in building, or
at least consolidating, the perception or misperception of unintelligible
and/or little known situations. These structures determine specific
“cultural receptors” concerning the African reality
in the Western public that tend to be reflected on the same Africans (Hawk,
1992). As underlined by many persons, the commercial interests of the
owners of the media and, even more so, the representations on the presumed
expectations of the public are involved in building such structures (Beattie
et al., 1999). Besides, these expectations are usually assessed
by very questionable criteria and lead to false homogenization
of the audience that, in reality also in the case of news on
developing countries and Africa in particular, has very different expectations
(Philo, undated).

In this framework some authors speak about the existence of influential
“discourses” on Africa, i.e. the conventions and rules shaping
the content of stories and news on Africa, and relate such content to
much wider bodies of social knowledge. According to Jo
Ellen Fair, the media in particular tend to package, re-use and spread
discourses produced by politics, science, religion, education and other
knowledge producing organizations (Fair, 1992). Among others examples
the author cites the case of the 1984-85 famine in Ethiopia
and Sudan that sparked off four other different “discourses”,
i.e. the discourse on the crisis (how famine was defined); the discourse
on the aids providers (related to their objectives, their political stances
on the international checkerboard – it was the period of the Cold
War – their works); the discourse on the receiving governments;
the discourse on the peoples (in other word the poor in the countries
receiving aid) that were only barely represented just to confirm the well
known stereotypes of passive populations incapable of looking after themselves
without aid (discussed later on).

It must be pointed out that many of the cited studies do
not simply analyze the texts produced and disseminated, but they also
examine the crucial factor of iconography (photographs, drawings, maps,
prints, posters, food labels and the cinema) (Pieterse, 1992). Recently,
in the field of photography alone, the knowledge of the social
reality produced by photographers has attracted attention (Mitchell,
1994). It is by no means a neutral production (Bolton, 1992) and often,
as in the case of Africa, as shown by the special “tematic analysis”
proposed by the Glasgow Media Group (Philo, 1998), it tends to portray
individuals or human groups as plain “bodies”
– more often that not in need – totally removed from the historical,
social and political context they live in. This approach adopted by photographers
has been, and stillis, used to support aids campaigns, and often has devastating
effects on the image of the continent and its peoples (discussed alter
on). Not to mention the iconography linked to the African woman
– special victim of the distortion of Africa’s image
(Mengara, 2001; Presley, 2000) – and the predominantly folkloristic,
rural and naturalistic iconography generally provided by the above mentioned
sources that the same cooperation organizations promoting development
find difficult to steer clear of. Thus, within the framework of “geopolitical
aesthetics” (Jameson, 1992) there has been a longstanding debate
on how to achieve a more accurate photographic representation
of Africa. And Sebastião Salgado’s contemporary “documentary
photograph” approach is gaining ground as many people feel
it conveys more effectively the complex lives of the persons in the photograph.7

Recurring assumptions and stereotypes

As mentioned, numerous specific stereotyped representations
and images of Africa

A record
store in Lagos, Nigeria.
Source: JHU/CCP, Photoshare, 1989

have accumulated over the years and have created a sort
of body of knowledge. This body is accessed by individuals
during socialization processes and becomes part of semantic memory
(Woodhall, Davis, Sahin 1983). It is also automatically retrieved and
often used as a real and proper interpretive shortcut
to understand the African reality (more than often considered as unique
and undifferentiated) and to decipher its facts. Such representation and
images can be considered real and proper “assumptions”,
in particular negative myths that are difficult to discuss
and assess critically. Some researchers believe that the media plays a
key role in creating a sort of “social ignorance”
of the masses (Schechter 1998). The various studies examined (both those
mentioned previously and the ones cited hereinafter) provide a brief list
of these stereotypes (some of which have already been indicated).

The standard stereotypes indubitably portray
the Continent Africa as a place of major natural catastrophes (floods,
volcanic eruptions, droughts, etc.) and brutal and violent social conflicts,
but also as a breathtakingly beautiful wild habitat. In other words in
westerners’ eyes Africa is rife with danger (Hawk 1992), yet at
the same time it is an exotic continent, the land of adventure. The first
reports given by the nineteenth century explorers described a continent
where the people were “different” to us, their pigmentation
was different, their anatomy was different (positively or negatively),
their traditions were different. Nonetheless, they depicted the inhabitants
as simple, hospitable, authentic and kind in line with the myth of the
“good savage”. It is also an “allochronic” land
(Corbey 1995) where time is believed to flow differently, if at all, to
the diachrony experienced by the rest of humanity, or at least in the
northern hemisphere. And this is enhanced by the alleged exclusively “rural”
nature of the continent.8

Recurring stereotypes of African peoples’ cultural
characteristics stress their “alterity” and inveterate
diversity compared with Western models. The connotations behind the expression
the “Black Continent” has to be extended to take in the supposed
darkness, dullness, impenetrability and the occult side of the African
world. As can be seen in Jean-Loup Amselle’s article in this issue,
only some purely aesthetic elements (African art, the interrelationship
between their life and the cosmos, African sexuality, Africans’
sense of community) are recuperated or apprecciated.

As for as mentality is concerned the classic and well known
recurring stereotypes of Africans represent them as constantly
and inevitably primitive, irrational, superstitious, lazy, as well as
incapable to plan or care for themselves plans, if anything just managing
to survive. When these characteristics are transferred to know how and
professionalism, the result is a picture of individuals and groups possessing
poor cognitive and operative capacity, ill suited to managerial positions9
and depending on outside aid for any emergency.

On a political level the current stereotype
is one of anarchic tribalism (an African specialty!) whereby the political
fights of the African populations are mainly thought to be driven by blind
and irrational forces (in other words “tribal” in the worst
sense possible) instead of nationalistic tensions, or any sort of values
ideological or implications (Maloba, 1992). Other frequently adopted categories
include depict despotism and corruption that, ascribed to this continent,
immediately become endemic possessing folkloristic features. The tacit
conclusion is that nothing can work in Africa and no form of government
is possible, let alone a democratic one.

The outcome is an image of a continent that is perpetually in
crisis, without any hope of advancing without palliative and
charitable aid, or at the best, without assistance provided and managed
by good willed (non African) actors.

Professional procedures and practices

How do the media produce and, if possible, re-elaborate
certain representations of the African continent, what procedures do they
follow? Some researchers (including Beattie et al., 1999; Biney,
1997; Hawk, 1992; Ardesi, 1992; Chavis, 1998) in the wake previous studies
on media operators’ professional practices and routines, have identified
some recurring mechanisms. These include:

processes of selection/omission
of news items connected to the cultural, organizational and professional
mechanisms of the so called “agenda setting” (i.e. deciding
which news items to concentrate on) (Shaw, 1979) and that preside over
the newsworthiness of events (see above);

decontextualization, i.e. reporting
facts stripped of any historical, social, political, cultural or economic
information that could explain them, help in making sense and relate
them to other facts (interest towards Africa swells whenever background
information is added to the events described or shown) (Philo, undated);

a consequent evenemential approach,
i.e. the highest degree of sensationalism whereby when speaking about
Africa only crises, coup d’etats, wars, revolts, famines, epidemics
(just think of the issue on the alleged origin of AIDS), and if possible
episodes of cannibalism are reported;

dramatization or description of
the events, processes as well as human and social relations in terms
of dual conflicts between individuals (usually leaders) and groups;

oversimplification or attribution
of the above mentioned events, processes and relations to clichéd,
clear cut, shallow schemes (would anyone ever blame the Holocaust on
the alleged violent nature of the Germans?). Regarding Africa clichés
of this kind are the norm;

dehumanization, or elimination
of the actors, in favor of entities or abstract processes or stereotypes
(as occurs for example when certain conflicts are blamed on certain
racial trades, such as “violence among blacks”);

on the contrary the excessive personalization
or individualization that can trigger off leaderism (this can occur
describing events and historical periods, when, for example, national
governmental leaders are put in the limelight and the role of civil
society is put in the shade);

the use of simple binary oppositions
to describe complex situations (for example, primitive/modern);

the use of synecdoche (i.e. a
figure of speech by which a part is put for the whole), for example
when populations such as the Maasai are used to represent the entire
African continent;

the abuse of specific terms, for
example the excessive use of words like “tribal”, “primitive”,
“animism” , “savage”, or “jungle”
(why is the Amazon Forest instead is not called a jungle but Forest?)10
or also the collective term “African/africans” for realities
referring to a continent comprising 54 sovereign states.

Channneling emotions and the role
of international NGOs

The role of what has been defined the use of the players-mediators
to legitimize specific interpretations of the African reality and, to
some extent, to channel the public’s emotions must
not be overlooked in this framework. These player-mediators often include
non governmental organizations that, intentionally or
unintentionally, at times can be involved in portraying Africa as incapable
of going it alone and in victimizyng the African actors (for example,
in conflicts, epidemics, famines), are depicted as mere passive receptors
of outside aid. This representations inturn, enhance the prestige of those
who help the “victims” and make the providers’ action
more acknowledged, all of which has a great impact on the fund raising
plans.

The existence of a sort of “structural synergy”
between many of these organizations, the occurrence of catastrophes and
the action of the media in the various forms of so called “disaster
reporting” has been postulated (Ronning, 1998)11
. It must be pointed out that in order to avoid, and if possible, to
prevent such a risk some of the most attentive non governmental
organizations, such as Oxfam, Save the Children and EveryChild launched
reflections of the “ethical use” of images of African people
way back in the 1980s.12

Indubitably, the issue that Susan Moeller calls “compassion
usury”, in other words a reduction or excessive selection
of the collective emotionalism required to mobilize the public’s
conscience and support has to be tackled. For instance, in emergencies
and crises this usury is fueled by the non stop broadcasting of negative
images by humanitarian organization and media operators showing the plight
of the victims produced. This situation is even more complicated by the
fact that these events often occur over the same time interval and therefore
they “vie” for visibility, and this triggers off the mechanism
of being sensitized the public “for only one crisis at a time”
(Moeller, 1998).

Barriers

The literature reported in this field has revealed barriers
impeding better and more informative coverage on the African continent
(Hawk, 1992; Moeller, 1998) over and above the previously mentioned ones,
e.g. the imbalances in economic and political relations, in international
flow of news, on the methods of social construction of the African reality.

It is evident that some of the barriers are material
and operational, for example: the financial problems of Western
newspapers that do not have the funds to open up local offices in the
various African countries; the scarcity of resources (technical and/or
financial) of the African media13 ; the inadequate
telecommunication systems (the well known digital) and transport systems;
the direct or indirect censorship that can be enforced by some African
governments and the ensuing reluctance, (or fear), shown by many local
sources to provide information.

The cognitive barriers are no less important.
They regard social representations,

inbuilt professional models and politico-cultural relations
between actors scattered in various corners of the globe. These cognitive
impediments include: the postulated minor interest Western readers have
for African reality (as shown this supposition is to a great extent produced
ad hoc); the different conception of the media’s role whereby
to the Western media is recognized (not without producing new stereotypes)
a role of “control” or even criticism towards the public powers,
while the African media are given a “supporting” role (constructive
or merely propaganda); the diffidence African journalists show towards
their Western counterparts; the on-going use of an “imported”
northern hemisphere model of journalism by African media operators (see
the article by Monica Mofammere published in this issue); the silent complicity
of African reporters and intellectuals vis a vis the images of their countries,
i.e. the lack of total commitment to provide adequate information on these
countries; the idea that distance (also physical) between the Western
correspondents and certain African realities makes the reporting more
objective (giving rise to difficulties in having direct and reliable on
site sources), and so on.

In this context media reporting on Africa never
shows the “achievements” of African societies, nor
does it report the prevalent values or issues of
“normality” (fashion, consumption, curiosities, sports
– with the exception of the world soccer championship, etc.) that
are generally transmitted by northern palimpsests and are reported on
during news programs. Speaking of which, the recent debate between those
(like the writer Wole Soyinka) who affirmed the a priori right
of an African nation to host even a trivial event like the Miss World
competition and those who were against this choice (long before any of
the serious incidents that occurred in November 2002) in the name of ethico-political
prejudices, rather than apprehension concerning public order or the handling
of the relations between the religious groups, is emblematic.

The question of the African media (both
the international media such as Panapress agency14
and the national and local media) actively involved in the difficult task
(see later) of processing and proposing new representation modes of the
continent is a totally different issue and should be tackled elsewhere
including the use of the Internet.The
network of networks as a special feature in this magazine attempts to
show is a (pluralistic) source able to produce a real and proper “counterimage”
of Africa. Via the Internet important information on the modern
social, economic, political and cultural reality of the entire African
continent can be retrieved and fill in the full, otherwise hazy, picture.
Today the major impact of the Internet on the image of Africa is clear,
and will probably increase in the coming years.

Effects

It will not be easy to eradicate the damaging chain
effects created by the above mentioned cultural and social models,
policies and organizational routines.

Also in this case these effects include cognitive
based ones. The main one is the invisibility of Africa in the media (Hagos,
2000) and especially the non coverage of countries that “hit the
headlines less “. Nonetheless there are other, deeper effects that
need to be underlined. For example, by spreading the idea that the African
crisis is “natural”, whereby the “good news” about
the continent reported in this magazine is the exception to the rule,
minor attention is paid to African societies and their potential nowadays.
Today Africa’s dual representation catches the interest, i.e. its
mythical image of a former garden of Eden now gone (or at best surviving
in few natural or anthropological “parks”) opposed to the
image of a near and pending Apocalypse. While on this topic the stereotyped
representation of conflicts must be stressed as to consider them as mere
expressions of atavistic ethnic conflicts, and what’s more socially
created ones (see the case of Rwanda) (De Swaan, 2002; Biney, 1997; Allen,
Seaton, 1999) only fires the underlying reasons for the conflicts, legitimizes
them and creates a vicious circle.

The damaging chain of effects snakes on and can be seen
in the misconception or delegitimizationof the
African political, economic and social actors. If all the leaders
really were corrupt, if there were no middle class entrepreneurs, if civil
society were a mere collection of edifying models of solidarity, then
there would be really no hope for the continent. Luckily it is a different
story, but the prevalent representations tend to conceal all this and
fuel the so called of “Afropessimism” strain
(Okigbo, 2002).

Down the line this system of representation of Africa hinders
international cooperation interventions, and makes governments and enterprises
very reluctant to invest in the continent. The latter
is very negatively influenced by the stereotype of a “single”
Africa, whereby problems related to operating in an area of conflict are
projected over the whole continent to take in peaceful countries that
have not experienced clashes since decolonization. Speaking on this point
an observer revealed that the conflicts waging in Sierra Leone, the area
of the Great Lakes and in the Horn of Africa were not the only wars on
the planet, but that nobody would have dreamt of associating the concomitant
violence in East Timor, South Lebanon, Chechnya, Sri Lanka and elsewhere
to Asia as a whole15.

On an operational level the immediate effect of the bad
image of Africa can be seen. It involves the upsurge of more or
less evident proposals to recolonize the continent (hopefully
an “enlightened recolonization”) and the almost forced spread
of western development models, or even worse, of economic solutions that
by-pass a cultural and social dimension that is considered hard to manage
today.

Some strategies and proposed solutions

If this is the state of affairs, is there a way
out? Several actors have tried to find one.

First of all the most sensitive section of the scientific
communities in Africa and the northern hemisphere has launched widespread
teaching activities and conducted research on the image of Africa and,
indubitably, this will have effects on new generations of intellectuals
and media operators. As previously mentioned, the most attentive sectors
of non governmental organizations cooperating for development have long
carried out specific training and sensitization programs aimed at preventing
or restricting the effects of any negative image of Africa their collaboration
may produce. Moreover, several international agencies (such as PNUD, INIDO,
UNESCO and OSCAL, the World Bank, the Economic Commission for Africa and
others) are adopting special programs in an attempt to promote a more
realistic picture of the African continent in the context of global community.
Numerous conferences have been held to achieve this goal and programs
like the United Nations System-wide Special Initiative on Africa- UNSIA
have been launched.

But what strategies and proposals
have been formulated to find a way out? It is patent that it is useless
to complain about the current state of affairs, or challenge the more
or less explicit politico-economic conspiracies against the African continent.
On the contrary, many feel it is opportune to identify areas where intervention
is feasible, in other words “medium range” areas where
significant changes can be promoted and achieved. Generally speaking
it has been stressed that it is by no means enough to guarantee more informative
coverage on the African continent, but that action must be wide reaching.
The solutions identified over the recent years – identified in the
sources consulted – include the following.

On what can be defined as a sociological and cultural level,
it has been proposed that the stereotypes on Africa must
be deconstructed using scientific and educational tools.
Furthermore, the media’s approach towards Africa
must berevised and their informative
strategies realigned to consider the trends, contexts and positive events
occurring in the continent.

Sensitization and education
programs involving the Western public are required at various levels to
promote the desire to have better in-depth and qualified information on
the African reality.

Programs addressed to human resources in the media
are crucial. It is advisable to select correspondents who have lived and
worked in Africa, or those who intend staying there some time, and to
train Western journalists (via training courses on history, African culture
courses, methods for selecting and handing news) and African reporters
(not only professional updating courses but also special courses to revive
cultural identity and social responsibility).

Networking has been suggested. Involvement
of “friends of Africa” no matter where they are and what field
they operate in, as long as they commit themselves to spread a more exact
image of the continent, even via horizontal exchange between civil society
actors. Obviously a special role can the played by members of the African
diaspora, contribution can be invaluable in the gap between
cultures and societies.

In this scenario, the setting up of a real and proper international
ombudsman able to represent a benchmark for analysis and accurate
intervention on the image of Africa was proposed way back in the mid 1980s.
But, no such figure was created (not even a network of actors) and at
present there are no plans to identify it and make it operative.

Obviously there are programs aimed at sustaining
the growth and the international presence of the African
media providing financial aid and technological infrastructure.
This framework includes programs whose goal is to triumph over
the “digital divide” existing between African countries
and the rest of the world. This ditch jeopardizes African politics, its
economy and technology as well as the media image of the entire continent
16.

These are but a few examples of the operational programs
that have been, or can be, implemented. It is very important also in this
regard to be aware of how much the current image of Africa is
rooted in global imagery and how it derives from a collective
social production with various degrees of intentionality. This
in order to be able to reverse the previously mentioned processes that
put at risk the African presence of Africans on the global scene and the
development of the continent.

A critical reassessment of the images of Africa
in Europe is crucial for a new cultural and economic approach between
the two continents. On this background, Milan's Centre for African
Studies (COSA) organised a Conference in April 2002
in Milan, the proceedings of which, edited by Baye Ndiaye and Marco Padula,
have just been published (Images of Africa in Europe,
EMI, Milan 2002). The conference was attended by diplomats, representatives
of international organisations, human sciences scholars, journalists,
religious representatives, and cultural operators from a number of countries.

The themes addressed include: Africa's presence in Italian
and US media; common misunderstandings and stereotypes about Africa's
cultural reality; contributions to Africa-Europe relations from intellectuals
such as Leopold Senghor; Africa's role in the global communications era;
globalisation as a way to enhance diversity; sustainable development and
international co-operation in the prospect of African Union.

There are a number of contributions to the text. They
include a speech by the Ambassador of Senegal to Italy, Momar
Gueye, who highlighted the responsibilities of Western
media in spreading “one-way” information on African
countries, along with the Africans' responsibilities
in building and spreading negative images of the continent. As a further
example, there was a contribution from linguist Franco Crevatin,
from Trieste University, who stressed ways in which the African
identity is misunderstood and disparaged, i.e., by misusing the
word “dialects” when referring to African languages; applying
a stigmatising distinction between (African) “ethnic groups”
and (European) “peoples”; attributing an old-fashioned and
magic kind of religiousness (animistic, in a derogatory sense) to the
African continent - as if in Europe there were no magicians, astrologers,
fortune-tellers with a mass following; describing African thinking
as puerile and naïve compared to the Western ”scientific”
thinking.

D. M.

Tanslation: Rita Bandinelli

THE UPPSALA UNIVERSITY ON THE IMAGE OF THE
AFRICAN CONTINENT

“Cultural images in and of Africa” is a
project started in 1995 at the Nordic Africa Institute of the
Uppsala University (Sweden), co-ordinated by Mai Palmberg. This
project has among its objectives to contribute, mainly through comparative
research and international workshops, to a critical review of cultural
changes in Africa and the negative and biased images of the African continent
that are common in North-European countries.
Issues on which the project is focused include: culture
and identity; cultural dynamics in present-day
Africa; creation of the image of the African continent.
This last issue in particular has been explored with a view to investigating
aspects such as how Northern NGOs throughout the world portray the African
culture, and the images of Africa school textbooks convey.
As part of the project, an e-forum has been set up to allow an ongoing
exchange of information.
The project’s website is: www.nai.uu.se/forsk/current/cult.html

Alessandra Olmi

Translation: Rita Bandinelli

Abram de Swaan (1942) is Research
professor (Universiteitshoogleraar) at the University of Amsterdam and
held the chair of sociology from 1973 until 2001. He was co-founder and
dean of the Amsterdam School for Social Research (1987-1997) and is presently
its chairman.
De Swaan was the recipient of the biennial award of the Holland society
for sciences, of the Busken Huet essay prize of the City of Amsterdam
and of the annual prize of the Netherlands circle of political scientists.
He is a member of several international editorial boards and of various
advisory councils (a.o. Maison de Science de l'Homme, Paris). He was Grotius
professor with the New School for Social Research, visiting professor
at Columbia University, at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales
and the Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, Paris; Einaudi professor at Cornell
U., European Union professor at Eötvös Loránd U. Budapest,
and in 1997/'98 held the European Chair at the College de France in Paris.
He is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences since 1996,
and since 2000 of the Academia Europea de Yuste.
De Swaan has published numerous articles in scientific journals, cultural
reviews and newspapers in the Netherlands and the USA. He published in
English a.o. In care of the state. Health care, education and welfare
in Europe and the USA in the Modern Era, Cambridge/ New York, 1988
(translations in Dutch, German, Spanish and French), and: The Management
of Normality. Critical Essays in Health and Welfare, Routledge, London/New
York, 1990. His most recent work is Words of the world. The global
language system, Polity Press 2001 (Dutch translation: Prometheus
2002).
De Swaan's present research interests are in transnational society, as
it concerns social policy, social identifications, and the rivalry and
accommodation between language groups.

Dr. Daniel M. Mengara is now Associate
Professor at the
Department of French, German, and Russian at the Montclair State University
– Department of Affiliation (1996-present)
He is also the Executive Director of SORAC (Society of Research on African
Cultures) and Editor-in-Chief of SORAC Journal of African Studies.
In 1995, he achieved a Ph.D. in Anglophone Studies at the University of
Nice-Sophia Antipolis, specializing in African literatures and civilizations/postcolonial
studies.
He was awarded in 1996 an M.A. in French Studies, at the Illinois State
University, specializing in second/foreign language pedagogy; in 1991
an M.A. in Anglophone Studies at the University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis,
France, specializing in African literatures and civilizations/postcolonial
studies and in 1990 a B.A. in English and Anglophone Studies at the Omar
Bongo University of Libreville, Gabon.
He taught and carried out researches in the following fields: African
civilization(s) and literature(s) in French and/or in English; Diaspora
Studies (African-American & Caribbean); Postcolonial Studies; African
Sociolinguistics and the French language; Comparative Gender Issues; Issues
in Language Acquisition and Teaching (Pedagogy); General literary and
cultural issues; Literary theory and criticism; Comparative literature;
Africa and the West.

Susan D. Moeller, Ph.D. is currently
senior fellow in the International Security Program at Harvard University's
Kennedy School of Government. She is on the faculty of the Philip Merrill
College of Journalism at the University of Maryland.
She is the author of Compassion Fatigue: How the Media Sell Disease,
Famine, War, and Death; and Shooting War: Photography and the American
Experience of Combat. Moeller has also written and spoken extensively
on war journalism,
human rights, the media and public policy, and photojournalism.
Moeller's professional experience includes serving as a consultant to
Public Radio International and Save the Children; writing articles and
columns for the Christian Science Monitor, Washington Post, Seattle
Times, Boston Globe and Philadelphia
Inquirer; and lecturing on media coverage of humanitarian crises,
third-world health issues, and social problems and public policy.

Currently, Dr. Quist-Adade teaches
Sociology and Mass communication courses in University of Windsor in Ontario,
Canada. At Wayne State University, he teaches Sociological Theory and
Social Psychology.
Dr. Quist-Adade attained a Diploma in journalism from Ghana Institute
of Journalism, MA in Mass Communication from Leningrad State University
in Russia and a Ph.D. in Sociology from Petersburg State University in
Russia.
Before Dr. Quist-Adade came to Wayne State University, he worked as a
newspaper journalist and radio broadcaster for the Ghanaian Times
and Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, as well as a press officer
for the Hungarian Embassy in Accra Ghana before heading to Russia, where
he worked as a correspondent for the London (U.K.)-based syndicated
Gemini News Service in Leningrad.
Besides teaching, Dr. Quist-Adade publishes and edits Sankofa News
a community-oriented newsmagazine. He is also the Windsor correspondent
of Gemini News Service and occasionally he strings for various
newsmagazine in London, England. In addition, he produces and hosts the
“Safari Pan-Afrikana Show” – a show on news, music,
commentaries on issues concerning continental Africa and African Diaspora-
on the local CJAM, the University of Windsor and Community radio station
He is author of many articles and essays published in books and journals.